In general, the washing machine is an appliance for removing various contaminants from clothes and beddings by using softening action of detergent, friction of water flow caused by rotation of a pulsator or a drum, impact applied to the laundry, and so on. Recent full automatic washing machine carries out a series of courses, such as a washing course, a rinsing course, a spinning course without intermediate user's operation.
It is recent trend that demands for drum type washing machine increases gradually, which, not only can reduce a total height compared to a pulsator type washing machine in which a washing tub rotates in an upright state, but also does not cause a problem of laundry entangling and crumpling.
The drum type washing machine is provided with a body cabinet which forms an exterior of the drum type washing machine, a tub positioned in the body cabinet supported by dampers and springs for holding washing water, and a cylindrical drum positioned in the tub for holding laundry, wherein the drum is driven by a driving unit for washing the laundry.
The drum type washing machine causes vibration inevitably due to rotation force of the drum and eccentricity of the laundry when the drum rotates for washing and spinning the laundry introduced to the drum, and the vibration generated thus is transmitted to an outside of the washing machine through the tub and the cabinet.
Consequently, in order to prevent the vibration from transmitting to the cabinet through the drum and the tub, it is essential that spring dampers are provided between the tub and the cabinet for buffering and moderating the vibration of the tub.
In the meantime, in most of cases, the drum type washing machines are installed, not individually, but according to an installation environment (for an example, a kitchen sink arrangement, or a built-in environment). Therefore, it is required that a size of the drum type washing machine is defined according to an installation environment.
Thus, in a case of the drum type washing machine, change of an inside structure thereof is limited by the springs and the damper structures between the tub and the cabinet provided for moderating the vibration, and as the washing machine installation environment is limited, the size change of the washing machine is also limited.
In the meantime, recently, in order to increase a washing capacity and provide user's convenience, there are many researches undergoing for increasing the washing capacity of the washing machine. However, due to above limiting condition, there is many difficulties for increasing a size of the tub for increasing the washing capacity within a related art drum type washing machine structure.
Accordingly, there are a variety of structures of washing machines under developing for increasing the washing capacity.